How To Know If Your Online Course Idea Is Profitable
It might seem obvious, but many first-time course creators go to the trouble of making a course BEFORE they check if their audience wants it, or that there’s even a big enough audience for it to make it profitable and worthwhile in the long run.
Today, let’s get into 4 Ways To Verify There’s Enough Demand For Your Course Topic Idea to be Profitable to ensure you don’t waste time making a course that won’t sell.
I’ll also review a free research tool that helps you:
Research keywords to include in your course topic and course title
Time your launch based on volume of demand
Brainstorm content ideas to attract your target audience
Let’s dive into each of the four ways.
#1 Does your course fall within an evergreen niche?
What is an evergreen niche?
An evergreen niche is one that’s in demand no matter the season or state of the economy. Your new course can lead to long-term profits because you’re able to monetize an ongoing demand.
The most popular evergreen niches fall in these categories:
Health & Wellness
Self-Help/Personal Development
Finance
Business
Relationships
Sports & Hobbies
Spirituality
There’s obviously dozens of niches within these broad categories, so you’ll want to make sure you target a specific audience with your course.
Example:
You’re a quilting instructor with a course that fits in the sports and hobbies category. There’s many quilting niches, but you focus specifically on free motion quilting on a domestic machine.
So you’re off to a great start if your course idea is in an evergreen niche.
What if my online course idea is in a seasonal niche?
Of course it doesn’t mean you can’t create a course in a seasonal niche, like holiday cake decorating. You’ll just need to be more mindful of when to promote your course since demand for it spikes at certain times of the year.)
#2 Are there existing online courses for your topic?
If yes…
You may feel discouraged if you see there’s already many people selling courses on your chosen topic, but don’t worry! That’s actually a reassuring sign because it means other creators have done the work for you and proved there’s a market for your topic!
Check course marketplaces like Udemy, Lynda and SkillShare to see how well your topic is covered.
If no…
Now if you do NOT see many (or any) courses on your topic, it could mean one of two scenarios:
You could be a pioneer or industry disruptor willing to teach and reveal insights that experts in your field aren’t talking about.
There’s not enough market demand for that topic.
Double-down on researching your audience and industry to make sure you’re not taking a risk that lands you in scenario #2. A too small, too niche audience isn’t worth the effort and time it takes to create, launch and market a course.
#3 Can you fill a gap in the marketplace so that your online course becomes profitable?
If you’re worried that your course will get lost in an oversaturated market, follow this mantra:
“Find What Others Overlooked”
Read reviews people share about existing courses. Take note of what students were confused or unhappy about or what they wanted more of.
Can you fill in those gaps with YOUR course? That’s what will set you apart from the competition.
Find reviews from these platforms:
Course marketplaces (Udemy, Lynda, Skillshare)
Amazon
Reddit
Facebook Groups
In Udemy, you can filter by ratings. Look at lower ratings and read the reviews from people sharing why a course wasn’t a 5-star experience for them.
For a more detailed breakdown of how to research your audience to find out exactly what they want, check out this post: How To Choose the Right Problem to Solve with Your Online Course.
#4 Research trends in how many people are searching for your course topic
Now I want to introduce you to a free tool that helps you perform market research on what your target audience is searching for online: GOOGLE TRENDS.
Google Trends analyzes how popular a particular topic or keyword phrase is searched in Google Search. It then displays graphs to visualize and compare the search volume of different search queries over time.
On the Google Trends home page, type in your course topic then click the search icon to see data.
You can see if a specific topic has been trending upwards or downwards in search popularity, or if there’s certain spikes of interest during the year (which can happen with seasonal niches as I mentioned earlier.
This is a great market research tool for small businesses who don’t yet have a big enough marketing budget for traditional research techniques (like focus groups).
Here’s 3 ways Google Trends helps you measure profitability for your idea.
Identify the longevity of a topic
Google Trends allows you to filter data by timeframe so you can see if your topic has always been trending, has received a spike in interest recently, or is on the decline.You can view data as far back as 2004.
I recommend starting with the filter “Past 5 years.” If the search volume for your topic has been trending upwards, it’s a sign you could capitalize on an expanding market.
The search term “side hustle” saw a spike in interest around October 2020. It’s steadily grown in interest since then.
View where your topic is most popular (which may indicate profitablity)
Scroll further down and you’ll see a geographic breakdown of which areas in the world search for that topic the most.
If your filter is set to the United States, it shows a state-by-state breakdown of where that topic is most popular. If you serve a global audience, change the filter to Worldwide and you’ll see a country-by-country breakdown.
This info is especially useful if you run ads for your course - you can target specific locations to more effectively use your ad spend.
For the topic “how to play guitar,” the top 5 countries searching for it include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States, and Ireland.
Understand which keywords your audience uses to search for your topic
Based on the keywords you enter, Google Trends will show you related phrases people use to search that topic. Use this to inspire your content strategy so you can create content (blogs, social media posts, emails) around these related search items. This gives you more opportunities to attract your target audience as you address other common questions they have.
Google Trends also lets you compare search terms. This is useful to gain insight on which specific words people use so you can include them in your course title.
When comparing these search terms, “business strategy” is more frequently searched.
Try out Google Trends here.
Conclusion
If you’ve verified your online course idea in these areas, then it’s worth moving forward in creating a course or program around it and begin making some profits!
Your next step is taking your course idea and creating a high-level outline for it. Grab the freebie below to speed up the process.
Fast-Track Outlining Your Online Course
Download this free workbook to fast-track outlining your course so you can unveil it ASAP to start making money.
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Online Course Resources:
3 Signs It's Time To Offer Digital Products To Make More Money In Less Time
How To Grow Your Email List For FREE Before You Launch An Online Course
How To Choose the Right Problem to Solve with Your Online Course
Check out our helpful Canva templates and learn how to sell them on Etsy:
Speaker One Sheet Canva Template | Canva Branding Template | Canva Checklist
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